Pirate's Freedom

The secret base of the Red Earth Continent, the stone room where Sebastian retreats.

"By the way, Sebastian, there is one more thing I forgot to ask you."

Although Tata Toth decided to start now, he still wanted to confirm Sebastian's status before doing so.

"Is there any problem with your physical strength now? Do you want to take a rest?"

"As long as Boss Erwin is fine, I can do it at any time."

Sebastian grabbed an iron ingot, threw it into his mouth and chewed it.

"Although I say I am working hard to train my fruit abilities, in fact, all I have been doing is eating from morning to night."

"By the way, this thing tastes like a bar of chocolate."

"Is this the little guy?"

Standing up unsteadily, Sebastian approached the barrel.

"It looks like--"

He swallowed the iron slag in his mouth and said.

"Not in a good condition."

"is it?"

Tata Tot jumped on the edge of the barrel and took a look into the barrel. The sea slug's body was curled up layer by layer, looking like a rose bud.

"It's probably because I just ate a devil fruit. It's not a big problem."

Tata Tot stretched out his claws and shook the barrel, causing a small whirlpool.

"..."

The sea slug, which continued to be autistic, did not react at all and slowly rotated with the current in the water.

"..."

Sebastian on the side showed an indescribable expression.

"What's wrong? Sebastian."

Looking up and seeing his appearance, Tata Tot was a little curious.

"How unpalatable are Devil Fruits? Even you have such an expression on your face. Do they really taste the same as SHI?"

"It's not a question of whether it tastes bad or not, it's something very special...completely opposite to your taste..."

With its long lightning-shaped tail reaching into the water, Tata Tot flicked the sea slug.

Snapped!

The sea slug quickly stretched its body, swung its fiery red tentacles over, and directly slapped Tata Tot's tail away.

But at the moment when [the rose] blooms——

With lightning speed, Tata Tot ejected the dumpling in his left paw and directly shot it into its mouth.

"...!!!"

The startled sea slug was about to twitch, but suddenly found that the situation had changed, and the familiar smell returned!

"...~~~"

It hesitated for a while, and after a while, it chose to forget everything that had happened before and enjoy the beauty in front of it again.

"~~~~~~"

Sebastian racked his brains for a while and finally made a simple summary.

"Let's put it this way, even if someone likes to eat SHI, he will never like the taste of Devil Fruit."

"...I seem to understand..."

Tata Tot shook his head to get rid of some sudden images and brought the topic back on track.

"Let's get started, Sebastian."

"Follow orders~!"

After Sebastian finished speaking, he picked up the barrel and tipped it into his mouth. Before the sea slug could react, it swirled with the water and disappeared from his throat.

The next moment, Tata Tot jumped up and jumped in as well.

Sebastian closed his eyes and stood still.

After a moment, he opened his mouth again.

A new-look Tata Tote jumped out.

He looked around, and some inexplicable things appeared around him. The originally quiet environment now had a strange noise.

"..."

He took a step forward, clasping his claws and spreading them.

The flesh and blood in the body was moving a bit jerkily, as if it was still not used to this structure, but the feeling of emptiness had disappeared, and the familiar feeling of exertion had resurfaced.

At this moment, a little ripple appeared in my heart.

"...!"

Tata Tot came back to his senses, feeling another confused and uneasy consciousness in his body, and stuffed a small yellow dumpling into his mouth to comfort it.

"It turns out it's in the sea slug's senses."

Tata Tot quickly stuffed another one.

"My [Paradise's secret vegetarian fresh buns] taste like this."

Sebastian brought a mirror, placed it in front of Tata Tot, and spoke confidently.

"How's the effect? ​​Boss Erwin, it looks pretty good!"

"..."

Tata Tot looked at himself in the mirror and said after a moment of silence.

"You can't just put the tentacles on your forehead and act like the big devil Piccolo. This makes me very passive..."

"But this is what you said, boss, to retain the ability to sense radio waves."

"Merge it with my ear, hide it, and—"

Pushing aside his own hair and looking at the looming red lines underneath, Tata Tot felt like he was wearing a ghost talisman.

"What's with all these messy tattoos?"

"Uh……"

After a moment.

"The long ears are straight and generous, and the fur doesn't have a trace of mottled color. It's done this time, Boss Erwin."

Facing the Tata Tot that popped out of his mouth again, Sebastian made a top-to-bottom movement with his hands.

Tata Tot spun around in circles.

"Well done, Siba—"

Pulling his tail in front of him, Tata Tot looked at it carefully and then raised his head to look at Sebastian.

"The heart shape on the tail... Sebastian, could it be that your artistic talent has been awakened and given free rein?"

"It's...it's okay."

Another moment.

"Boss Erwin, this time I will definitely——"

"I counted, Sebastian."

Lifting his paws and looking at each other, Tata Tot and Sebastian looked at each other.

"Did you put an extra toe on me?"

"I was wrong, Boss Erwin."

Wiping the cold sweat from his face, Sebastian opened his mouth obediently and let Tata Tot jump in again.

after an hour.

"Exactly the same?"

A feeble voice sounded.

"Exactly the same."

"no problem?"

A small hope was revealed.

"Didn't ask—"

Tata Tot thought of something.

"Actually, there is still a small problem."

"……what is the problem……?"

"Since ancient times, whether it is transformation or evolution, there have always been some differences in appearance. To put it simply, they must be recognizable."

Tata Tot rubbed his cheeks, feeling the new feeling.

"Let's do this, change the color scheme, replace all the browns with reds, and make the colors a little brighter..."

I don't know how long time has passed.

"...How about it? Boss Erwin."

Sebastian collapsed on the ground and said helplessly.

"It should be okay now..."

"Sebastian."

After looking in the mirror for a while, a deep voice sounded.

"...Boss..."

Sebastian had a premonition of something, and his voice trembled slightly.

"Do you think there's something missing on my forehead?"

"...there's something missing...what...?"

"Let's try adding a vertical eye first!"

The mood was inexplicably high.

"……OK……"

Sebastian opened his jaw, waited until Tata Tot jumped in, and then reset it with force with a 'click'.

"I always think it looks a bit scary...forget it, you put two red [V]s on top of each other."

Click!

"Hmm...it looks pretty good. What about the decomposed triangle? How about the decomposed triangle?"

Click!

"It's not that good. Let's change it to a diamond shape."

Click!

"Forget the graphics, they don't match well. By the way, give [S] a try."

Click!

"It looks a little silly. Wouldn't it be better to get a [Z] tattoo?"

Click!

"It's indeed better, but if there are suspicions of plagiarism, I'd better try something else."

Click!

"..."

He jumped in.

"..."

He jumped out.

"..."

He jumped in again.

"..."

He jumped out again.

……

Tata Tot looked in the mirror for a while, looking at the two red [V] on his forehead superimposed like arrows. He felt that there was a hint of awe in the cuteness. He nodded with satisfaction, but continued casually.

"I think the current [War Pattern] still has some room for improvement. Can we make some adjustments to the angle..."

He turned around and saw Sebastian's eyes.

"...It's okay...I was just joking..."